The Big Day

Hello everyone,

Today is the premiere of our first show of Vinegar Tom! Thank you to everyone who has booked tickets. Just to confirm to you all, could you please come to London Metropolitan University's North Campus Tower Building main entrance. You will be collected from this point by our Theatre director at 6:45!

The University's address is:

London Metropolitan University
Tower building,
166-220 Holloway Road,
London
N7 8DB

We look forward to seeing everyone!

Theatre Studies Class

Week 6: Coming Soon To A Hand Near You!

Performing Arts students, keep an eye out for one of our flyers for the show, coming soon to a hand near you! These contain all the information you need to sign up for your place as well as all necessary dates and times!

Week 5: Tickets

Dear all,

As you all know, our production is looming ever closer. You will be able to join us on Wednesday 5th December and Thursday 6th December, at London Metropolitan University, room TMG-65 at 7pm both evenings.

Places for both evenings are limited, so please email thirdyeartheatrelondonmet@gmail.com with your name and preferred evening to book your place. You will receive a confirmation email for your ticket, or alternatively be informed of any changes that need made to your booking. You will need to bring a copy of your confirmation email that will act as your ticket.

Please arrive on time, there will be no admissions after 7pm and doors will remain closed throughout the performance! We look forward to seeing you all.

London Metropolitan Theatre Studies Class.

Week 4: "Vinegar Tom" Characters & Their Actors

When Vinegar Tom was first brought to the stage in 1976, actors such as Roger Allam, probably best known for his role in The Thick Of It, and Mary McCuster were among the original cast. Vinegar Tom was presented for the first time at the Humberside Theatre in Hull.

Cast for London Metropolitan University's Theatre Studies class is as follows:

• Joan: Jade Jarvis
• Susan: Leia Ryan
• Alice: Migle Grakauskaite
• Packer: Cameron Bell
• Marjory: Emily Lodge
• Ellen: Nanna Remond
• Jack: Chris Barlow
• Doctor/Bellringer/Goodman: George Sesay
• Kramer & Sprenger: George Sesay/ Cameron Bell. 

Working on the text and acting as Assistant Director: Zdenka Prockova. 

Directed by: Christopher Holt.

Each actor has studied their character carefully throughout the play. When asked to describe their assigned characters, each actor said...

• Jade Jarvis of Joan: "She is Alice's mother, a busy-body, a gossip, a drunk...Not quite the full ticket.She has a poor attention span, is always in her own world, depended on by Alice, short tempered, manipulative, needy, extremely lonely, disliked by many, loved by very few!"

• Leia Ryan of Susan:

• Migle Grakauskaite of Alice: "She is strong, single mother, young, a free spirit, an adventurer, searches for love (in the broadest sense), a woman knight, a tomboy, and has her own interpretation of the world, i.e what is right, wrong and acceptable."

• Cameron Bell of Packer: "Packer comes to villages to find witches. He is a strong believer in God and is very ruthless when it comes to getting confessions from those accused, so that he may feel at ease that he has done right, no matter what the method used. He has a strong partnership with Goodman, with whom he shares his earnings."

• Emily Lodge of Marjory: "Marjory loves to be the better-off of the women in her village. She is very proud, especially of her husband Jack and what he has provided for her. She enjoys having power over her neighbours and feels no remorse over the bad deeds she commits."

• Nanna Remond of Ellen: "Ellen is middle-class, a known midwife to the women in the village, an adviser and problem solver, an indendant woman. She is unmarried, and wishes to pass on and teach her knowledge of good witchcraft. She believes in the good in people. She is a very misunderstood character."

• Chris Barlow of Jack: "Jack is a hard worker and provides well for his wife Marjory. He is quite frustrated (sexually!), gullable, angry, bitter and immature."

• George Sesay of Goodman: "Goodman, along with Packer, is a proud witch finder, Packer's assistant, come to "save people's lives" while admiring Packer's work. He is forceful while man handling women accused of being witches,and considers himself to be healthy by keeping the country healthy."

Week 3: Presentations

Please refer to each document for the hand outs of our class's presentations:



1970's Feminism (With thanks to Cameron Bell, George Sesay and Zdenka Prockova):

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1YVnTN3YA1X3aACJz60HLEP7dlXzigivGt0j4PN4G4BM/edit#slide=id.p13

Caryl Churchill (With thanks to Chris Barlow, Jade Jarvis and Emily Lodge):


The Pendle Witch trials (With thanks to Nanna Remond, Migle Grakauskaite and Leia Ryan):

Week 2: Her Dark Materials

Inspiration for the topic of our play was drawn from a article published in The Guardian on Friday 20th July 2012. Entitled "Her Dark Materials", by Blake Morrison, the article is about the culture of witches and witchcraft among the creative arts. It makes specific reference to the Pendle and Salem witch trials. It analyses the development of "the witch" to its modern stereotype, citing references throughout history, ranging from Shakespeare's "The Tempest"; to "The Wizard of Oz", to "Harry Potter". Caryl Churchill's "Vinegar Tom" is made reference to at length, exploring her expression of the reasons why witches and witchcraft are a feminist affliction. She will proceed to express this further throughout her female characters in the play, most particularly the characters Alice, Susan and Joan.

To read the article, please click on the link below:

https://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/books/2012/jul/20/blake-morrison-under-the-witches-spell

Week 1: An Introduction

Arriving at London Met for our first day of University, the third year Theatre Studies class had been waiting with much anticipation the revelation of this year's play of choice for our end of year production. The topic would include a vast range of playwrights and their plays from which to choose from. It would entail a lot of diverse research, experimenting with acting techniques to suit certain characters and, in the long run, creating our own unique version of a successful play.

The play that was chosen was "Vinegar Tom", a 1976 feminist play by British playwright Caryl Churchill. The play offers so much material to work with. 17th century witchcraft trials, abusive relationships, the advantages of possessing the necessary power to exclude oneself of being a witch and accuse others is present throughout the play in both men and women. Caryl Churchill has created a diverse range of characters to work with. Once everyone has been assigned a character it was exciting to piece together our adaptation through various different ideas and suggestions.

By creating this blog we hope to show our audience how we took Caryl Churchill's play into our own hands to make it our own. The blog will include weekly chapters of the work that is done in our group to bring the play together for the final production in December. We would like to share our work with you and offer a "behind the scenes" glance of the thoughts and ideas that have created our adaption of Vinegar Tom.

Please refer to week 3 for presentations about Caryl Churchill, Feninism and the Pendleton Witchcraft Trials.